And cruise It left Rome with more than 3,000 people on board on April 19 for Copenhagen. The trip, with several stops on paradisiacal coastshad a terrifying unforeseen event three days after setting sail, when one of the passengers spotted a body floating in the sea. And then they discovered four more.
According to the agency EFEoccurred during one of the company’s tours Sapphire Princess. Early on Wednesday, April 23, the discovery of five bodies in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea was confirmed.
Upon seeing an orange vest and verifying that it was a person, one of the passengers He notified the cruise ship authorities. At that time they were sailing about 140 miles – approximately 225 kilometers – east of the town of Cabo de Palos, and the itinerary included a stop on the coast of Spain.
In a video recorded by one of the passengers, Jimmy Mendoza, and transferred to the TeleCartagena television channel, it went viral on the social network X. The images recorded the operation of the three rescuers who came and recovered the body.
Any hope that it was a living castaway was dispelled when they approached and confirmed that he had no vital signs. An hour later they spotted another life jacket in the water and the crew recovered a second body.
The sad sequence was repeated two more times and when the captain announced that the recovery mission had concluded, he reported five bodies.
«It was very sad to witness, I was shaking inside. The crew was very good helping us stay calm, but everyone was shocked,» another passenger, who asked to remain anonymous, told local media.
Taking into account that the Sapphire Princess, the barco Twin of the Diamond Princess that has been operating since 2004, it has more than 700 balconies with sea views, many of the passengers were able to see what was happening from their cabins.
The investigation and the authorities’ hypothesis
Through a statement, the Central Government Delegation in the Region of Murcia indicated that the bodies were transferred to the port of Cartagena, Murcia, where they began an investigation to clarify the circumstances of the event.
The National Police is investigating whether this tragic discovery is related to another small boat that was found adrift on Monday, about 25 miles -40 kilometers- from Cartagena.
In relation to that vessel, Maritime Rescue received a request for help from a French military ship, and they found three deceased and two survivors.
They proceeded to transfer the two survivors and took the three fatal victims to the port of Santa Lucía. According to the testimony of the rescued people, they had left Algeria with a total of 18 occupants, so they declared themselves 13 remaining people missing.
One of those two survivors was arrested for being accused of reckless homicide and favoring irregular immigration. «At the moment it has not been possible to confirm whether the deceased found by the cruise ship crew were traveling on the same boat rescued last Monday in which five other people were located,» they detailed.
The authorities also did not provide more information about the identity of the deceased or the status of the ongoing judicial investigation. The expertise will determine if there is a relationship between both episodes or if they are independent events on the high seas.
Regarding the Sapphire Princess cruise, they offered psychological assistance to all travelers who were affected by the events and resumed their schedule after the incident. The trip lasts 14 days and the arrival is scheduled for May 3 at the port of the capital of Denmark.
